Patrick Leahy: “I rise to note an important victory in the fight to protect whistleblowers and to praise my good friend Senator Chuck…”

“I rise to note an important victory in the fight to protect whistleblowers and to praise my good friend Senator Chuck Grassley for his leadership in this fight. The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Department of Labor has reversed its view on how it will interpret an important provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on corporate misconduct. The provision we enacted provides a Federal law protecting corporate whistleblowers from retaliation for the first time. The law was designed to protect people like Sherron Watkins from Enron, who was recently named one of Time magazine's ``People of the Year,'' from retaliation when they report fraud to Federal investigators, regulators, or to any Member of Congress. The law was intentionally written to sweep broadly, protecting any employee of a publicly traded company who took such reasonable action to try to protect investors and the market. The reason that Senator Grassley and I know so much about the legislative intent behind this provision is that we crafted it together last year in the Judiciary Committee and worked to make it part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on the Senate floor.”